Max Kohn (Otto Tausig), the aging Lothario of “Love Comes Lately,” is very much like the movie itself: doddering and milquetoasty, but ultimately disarming. Blending three short stories by the Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, the filmmaker Jan Schütte may well have made a minor classic for the retired-Jews-of-Miami set. In this admirably grown-up tale, with its keen sympathy for autumnal sentiments, he has, at the least, offered mellow counterprogramming to frivolous summer fare.

Not that Max is a paragon of maturity. Now in his 70s and long shacked up with his beleaguered girlfriend Reisel (an underused Rhea Perlman), Max, a declining writer of fiction, finds himself invited to give a handful of lectures and readings at universities. Dreams and life mingle in his imagination, and in the film, as he journeys to his academic rendezvous.

Women come and go, both real (Barbara Hershey as a former student) and phantasmal (Tovah Feldshuh as a needy widow and Elizabeth Peña as a peculiar Cuban housekeeper), conjured by fate or desire. An hour and a half spent in the melancholy mind of Max is time enough, and though Mr. Schütte favors a patient, leisurely pace, he finds a brisk and touching exit.

LOVE COMES LATELY

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Written and directed by Jan Schütte, based on the short stories “The Briefcase,” “Alone” and “Old Love” by Isaac Bashevis Singer; directors of photography, Edward Klosinski and Chris Squires; edited by Katja Dringenberg and Renate Merck; music by Henning Lohner; production designer, Amanda Ford; produced by Martin Hagemann and Kai Künnemann; released by Kino International. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. This film is not rated.